1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of water treatment systems, and more particularly systems for converting reclaimed water into non-potable, treated water useful for watering parkways, highway borders, crop irrigation, and the like, which do not need nor require the use of potable water.
2. Description of Related Art
Water conservation, as well as anti-pollution laws and regulations are in effect in many parts of the United States and in many countries outside the United States. Often these requirements are addressed together with the use of treated, but non-potable, reclaimed, typically referred to as "treated water", for the watering of large areas where such use is practical. Typical of such uses are the watering of golf courses, parks and highway borders and median strips, and the irrigation of some types of crops.
As above mentioned, the reclaimed water, which may comprise sanitized water from sewage plants and industrial processes, or certain types of run-offs, requires a certain amount of treatment or additional treatment in order to bring the reclaimed water up to acceptable treated water standards. This requirement typically involves two problems: the pre-treated effluent may vary from time-to-time, and/or in location-to-location, in such parameters as pH, the amount of total dissolved solids (TDS), and the flow rate, and the treated water requirements as to the foregoing may be different in different locations and may even vary in a given locality according to the intended use.
Because of the variables involved with both the innate quality of the reclaimed water and the requirements for the treated water, the treatment of a flow of reclaimed water with just the minimal amount of clean treatment water to provide a treated water meeting the pre-established quality levels has been difficult if not impossible to provide in an economical manner.
The present inventor has described a system for treating reclaimed water to provide treated water and a method of using said system to provide treated water from reclaimed water. (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,410 to Peltzer which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.)
It has been found to be possible to convert many existing waste water treating systems into systems which can be utilized to practice the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,410 and other similar methods of converting reclaimed water into potable water.
It is also desirable to construct new waste water treating systems to practice the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,410 and other similar methods of converting reclaimed water into potable water.
It is therefore, a principal objective of the present invention to provide a method of constructing an effective and efficient system for converting reclaimed water into treated water having a preestablished quality greater than that of the reclaimed water by mixing a minimum amount of a clean treatment water with the reclaimed water.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of converting an existing waste water treating system into an effective and efficient system for converting reclaimed water into treated water having preestablished quality greater than that of the reclaimed water by mixing a minimum amount of a clean treatment water with the reclaimed water.
Other objects and advantages of the instant invention will be apparent from a careful reading of the specification below.